FSU PRESIDENT T.K. WETHERELL AND GEORGE B. BARTLEY, M.D., CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF MAYO CLINIC JACKSONVILLE, SIGN PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT. (PHOTO: BILL LAX/FSU PHOTO LAB)
	FROM LEFT, FSU VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH KIRBY KEMPER, GEORGE B. BARTLEY, M.D., CEO, MAYO CLINIC JACKSONVILLE, FSU PRESIDENT T.K. WETHERELL, LT. GOV. JEFF KOTTKAMP AND DR. THOMAS G. BROTT, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, MAYO CLINIC JACKSONVILLE. (PHOTO: BILL LAX/FSU PHOTO LAB)

Two leaders in medicine, Florida State University and Mayo Clinic, have signed an agreement to work as research partners in the quest to improve health care outcomes for Floridians and all Americans.

"Florida State University and the Mayo Clinic are accepting the challenge and the responsibility of improving the quality of life for Florida's citizens,'' said FSU President T.K. Wetherell. "In the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, we can work together to accomplish results that we expect will have a significant impact on health care well beyond our state.''

The agreement calls for interaction and collaboration between researchers at FSU and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., the establishment of joint research programs and the exchange of scientific and educational literature and research. The agreement opens up unique opportunities to turn basic science into new cures for a variety of diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer's.

"Mayo Clinic's history is one of teamwork and integration that bridges the gap between basic science and the bedside,'' said George B. Bartley, M.D., chief executive officer of the Florida clinic. "This new collaboration links our researchers with FSU's talented physicians, scientists and students to bring new discoveries to Florida's patients."

One research project of mutual interest may be the Clinical Research Network being developed at FSU's College of Medicine, which offers potential involvement of more than 1,200 faculty physicians whose 1.5 million patients represent a broad spectrum of health and illness, gender, age and demographics. The network fits in well with the recent emphasis at the National Institutes of Health on clinical translational research, which involves taking research from the laboratory to the bedside.

Mayo researchers gain access to FSU's acclaimed National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, where they will have the opportunity to study proteins that play key roles in disease in new ways -- through the lens of a magnetic field more than a million times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field.

By partnering with Mayo, FSU researchers will gain insight from a health-care organization with more than 35 years of continuous funding from the NIH and a Clinical Research Unit considered one of the nation's premier sites for conducting inpatient and outpatient studies and clinical trials.

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group medical practice in the world. Of nearly 50,000 employees, more than 6,000 are actively involved in medical research, translating discoveries from the laboratory into improved patient care.

FSU's College of Medicine, the nation's newest fully accredited medical school, offers a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences in addition to the M.D. Research projects underway at the college are being funded by the NIH, the National Science Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Mental Health, among others.